A Chinese court jailed a Christian pastor for one year for disturbing public order after he sought to stop a cross being removed from atop a church, a U.S.-based religious rights group said. 

The court in Pingyang county sentenced Huang Yizi on Tuesday, the China Aid Association said in a statement. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday he opposed sanctions against Venezuela that were imposed last week by the United States.

President Barack Obama rubbed many governments in the region the wrong way by declaring Venezuela an "extraordinary threat to the national security" of the United States.

The European Union and Cuba have agreed to speed up the pace of normalizing ties and hope to reach an accord by the end of the year, the bloc's top diplomat said Tuesday.

Federica Mogherini, the highest ranking EU official ever to visit Cuba, said the fact that she traveled to Havana so soon after taking up the foreign policy chief job on November 1 showed how important the relationship was.

Jailed former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed on Wednesday accused authorities of scuttling his appeal against his controversial conviction and jailing for 13 years under tough anti-terror laws.

Nasheed's spokesman said the honeymoon islands' first democratically elected president has been denied a copy of the trial proceedings which he needs to lodge an appeal.

Indonesian militants believed to have returned from fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria are suspected of being behind an attempted chlorine bomb attack in a shopping mall last month, police said Wednesday.

The homemade device -- made up of several bottles and a detonator -- was discovered in the mall south of Jakarta after it failed to go off properly. Police said it was the first such attack ever attempted in Indonesia. 

U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to slow the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan will hamper peace efforts, the Taliban said Wednesday, vowing to continue fighting.

Obama on Tuesday reversed plans to withdraw around 5,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year, an overture to the country's new reform-minded leader, President Ashraf Ghani.

Singaporeans wept on the streets and queued in their thousands Wednesday to pay tribute to founding leader Lee Kuan Yew after his flag-draped coffin was taken on a gun carriage to parliament for public viewing.

More than 26,000 had filed past the coffin before sundown, a government spokesman told AFP, and thousands more were in line outside despite warnings that it could take them up to eight hours to view the casket.

The United States has again invited Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to visit the United States, seeking to restore ties rattled by revelations of American spying against her and her country.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden extended the invitation by telephone last week, said a spokesman for the Brazilian presidency on Tuesday.

Japan's prime minister is set to rebuff a prickly invitation to a Chinese military parade, a report said Wednesday, as the former World War II enemies jockey over the telling of their shared history.

Tokyo has not officially replied to Beijing's comments on the march, being held to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the conflict, but it is unlikely that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will go, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Thailand's junta chief warned detractors Wednesday that he would hold onto power indefinitely if they continued to oppose his plans for the kingdom in a heated press briefing ahead of an overseas trip.

Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who was appointed as prime minister a few months after seizing power in a coup last May, appeared irritated when he met reporters shortly before flying to Brunei, frequently raising his voice and shaking his head.